Home-cooked meals ‘Turnip the Beet’ at Wauzeka-Steuben
By Correne Martin
The Wauzeka-Steuben School District has been recognized for its efforts to “Turnip the Beet.”
Its food service staff participated, for the first time last summer, in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Meal Program, serving free meals to anyone ages 0-18. And, just last week, administration was informed it had been validated by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service program as one of the nation’s first Turnip the Beet Gold Award winners.
“The (new) award program recognizes summer meal [providers] who have worked hard to serve nutritious and appealing meals during the summer months,” said Amy Kolano, DPI summer food service program coordinator. “Three Turnip the Beet award levels were available and nominations were evaluated based on a wide range of nutrition and meal quality criteria. Three in Wisconsin have earned awards in this first year (of the program).”
Wauzeka-Steuben earned the gold honor, while silver awards were presented to both Green Bay Area Public Schools and the Sheboygan Area School District. Nationwide, Wauzeka-Steuben is among an elite group of 49 award-winning school districts being commended. No grant money is awarded, as the program is purely an incentive for food service staff to work toward. A certificate from the USDA will be mailed to the district and numerous social media posts will further recognize the winners’ efforts.
“For this small of a school to win gold after only one year of participating in the summer program, it’s so overwhelming,” said Jannette Ward, W-S food service director. “When I nominated us for this award, I was hoping to be at least acknowledged. I just wanted to be doing a good job and try again next year. I wasn’t expecting [gold].”
In the summer of 2016, Wauzeka-Steuben served a maximum of 200 hungry eaters per lunch and between 150 and 175 each day for breakfast. Some were students attending summer school, while others happened to be in the community and attended with family. On average, 180 meals were served within the small, rural village of 800 people.
Ward said she was told Sheboygan served over 3,000 and Green Bay probably had just as many or more.
“It was a lot of work but it was fun. I came in, prepared the food, served it and did all the dishes myself,” she said. “I love to cook. It’s a dream job because the smiles on the kids’ faces are worth so much to me.”
With some assistance from Crawford County Youth Development Agent and parent Amy Mitchell, Ward submitted a nomination for the district to receive the Turnip the Beet honor. That meant a significant amount of paperwork as well, but she’s happy she took the time so Wauzeka-Steuben’s top-notch quality and efforts could be known.
During the summer, Ward is the only kitchen employee, though she’s accompanied by three others during the school year: Roni Gundlach, Kim Jones and Cheryl Lippitt. She grew up and attended school in the district and has worked there since 1993. She took over the director job about four years ago. Ward touted that, in general, the food service staff focuses on abundantly home-cooked entrees and eye-appealing sides for the kids, who seem to appreciate it.
The team creates and provides accustomed, healthy and balanced comfort foods like hamburgers, rib patties, chicken nuggets, beef, tuna casserole, ham and scalloped potatoes, beef and gravy over mashed potatoes, homemade pizza, broccoli, cucumbers, pears, berries, a daily salad bar, breakfast sandwiches, yogurt, pretzels and cheese, three variations of milk, water, etc. Also, new dishes such as chicken and gravy over biscuits, chicken Alfredo, “zippy chicken spaghetti,” three-bean salad and pasta salad have been incorporated into the menus.
“A variety of colors and textures of vegetables and fruits are served daily for both breakfast and lunch to appeal to a wide range of ages,” Ward noted. “We also used daily taste test tools. Kids are always welcome to try a ‘thank you bite.’ They can try the item to see if they would like it and want a full serving. This was especially useful when acorn and spaghetti squash were served.”
Though much of the food is obtained by the district as government commodities, W-S also takes advantage of the summer garden season and accepts donations such as lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, apples, bananas and even aronia berries and pumpkins. Ward said she appreciates the chance to be more “experimental” for summer meals, though she added that she’s careful not to make too much of something new, as the staff also strives for minimal waste.
In addition, the UW-Extension partnered with the district to offer an educational component about the nutrition of the various foods and potential recipes for parents to try at home.
Over the years, as her own kids went through school, and even after she became merely the “lunch lady” to the school’s youth, she’s often believed that having summer meals would be a great service to the community, where many of the children come from low-income households.
“It’s a lot of work, but what I get out of it is priceless,” she commented.
District Administrator Robert Sailer also pointed out, Wauzeka-Steuben has 60 percent of its enrollment receiving free or reduced meals during the school year. “These kids don’t always get a well-rounded meal outside of school.
[Our meals] help them to be active and perform well during the day while also helping parents out,” he said. “We’re a small school with a small staff that goes above and beyond on a daily basis. People think that large school districts have the advantage but I think we’ve clearly shown that it’s not the size of the district that matters but the size of the heart that matters.”